Nwahs for Delegate

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Nwahs for Delegate!

Friends, Citizens, TSPers, lend me your ears!

I know we’ve been through a surprising turn of events — before today, I certainly would not have expected to be writing this platform right now. But after careful consideration, I am happy to announce that I am running for Delegate of the South Pacific. This is an important role in our Coalition, and I look forward to interacting with everyone in the days ahead, be it on the forums, on Discord, or on the RMB. I especially look forward to sharing my plans for the Delegacy and listening to what you want from a Delegate. I also look forward to a fruitful discussion with the other candidates for Delegate.

First, I want to share more about myself, and then I will talk more about my plans to complete Erstavik’s term as Delegate.

Who is this “Lord” Nwahs? Is he an Establishment™ shill? What’s with the owls?

long rambly political bio

I joined TSP in January of 2024 when my current WA nation Differences-In-Differences was founded there, after a very long hiatus from NS (I was in TNP for a while from 2013-2015). As a big NS democracy enjoyer, I immediately joined the forums and took part in my first election… where RON won the PM race (because Drew forgot to post a campaign thread), while former Delegate Griffindor/Ebonhand won what was then just their second of four terms as Delegate.

I took my first step into TSP politics proper when I accepted then-PM Penguin’s invitation to be OWL Director in April of 2024. At the time, the OWL office was vacant, and I had to learn everything from scratch as a WA noob. Over time, I was able to set up quite an office with my OWL volunteers, and even managed to post some nice IFV dispatches thanks in no small part to their help.

After Penguin’s term, I decided to run for the Prime Ministership myself in July of 2024, winning a race against ProfessorHenn, whom I quickly appointed as DPM. I learnt a lot from my brief time as PM, but I unfortunately decided to resign for personal reasons (mostly a fear that I was spending too much time on NationStates, and that in order to cut back I would not be able to perform to the best of my ability).

I remained in my role as OWL Director until Erstavik took over sometime later in 2025, but in the interim, I became part of the Assembly team when BlockBuster took me on, and eventually became Chair of the Assembly around the start of 2025. I was content to remain as Chair, but a surprising opportunity arose when I was asked by ProfessorHenn to become Foreign Affairs Minister in April of 2025, which I accepted, having been part of TSP’s Foreign Affairs Council for a while for some time at that point. Around this time, I became part of the Coral Guard as well!

I stayed on as Foreign Affairs Minister for a while, which was a role I enjoyed taking on because of all the behind-the-scenes challenges involved in protecting our Coalition’s interests and strengthening our ties with other regions. I eventually had to resign again for personal reasons, but I have continued on as an advisor in the Foreign Affairs Council.

Since then, I’ve mostly kept a low profile politically besides briefly being Chair again when Welly took over as MoFA, and returning to OWL as Director when Erstavik was elected Delegate. But now I’m here, seeking your trust to be your Delegate.

Regional Security

Our Coalition is strong when the Delegate, working with the Council on Regional Security and the Coral Guard, maintains a strong buffer of endorsements and builds up a high amount of influence. This ensures that we are able to deal with hostile threats to our democracy, and is very much why by design we are able to handle crises like the sudden resignation of a delegate.

If I am elected Delegate, any transition would take place quickly, since I am already a member of the Coral Guard. I will work closely with the CRS and the CG to redouble efforts to increase the endorsement count for the Delegacy as well as for our other security officials as well.

Regional Growth and Activity

Working with the Government

The Delegacy has an important gameside role, as the front-facing official that is prominently displayed when new players spawn in. I will endeavor to work with the Government of the day in an advisory role, to be a force multiplier for their integration efforts for new and existing players, so that all TSPers, regardless of where they usually spend time on (RMB, forumside politics, discord, forum RP, etc.), feel like this is truly the place to be on NationStates.

Gameside Activity

I know that I certainly post and interact less on the RMB than might be ideal for some RMBers, and I will certainly understand if this is the reason that you might feel reluctant to vote for me. I promise you that this will change naturally if I become delegate, as I expect a lot of my work will transition to being a gameside face for the region. I look forward to getting to know many faces that I know even better in the days ahead. If elected, I expect to post frequent delegate updates, similar to the fortnightly briefings of old. I haven’t planned specific details in terms of what they will look like, but expect some nerdy trivia facts too in these updates!

Speaking of the RMB, an important part of the RMB job is to work with RMB moderation to keep our RMB a great community for everyone to be in. I look forward to working more closely with the RMB mod team if elected Delegate, and I hope that my judgment will prove to be a useful regular addition to the team.

WA votes

As OWL Director, I currently ping the delegate on Discord when votes come online, usually during minor and major updates. I expect to be active whenever the OWL Director or Prime Minister sees fit for me to take part in any stacks or stomps for WA legislation.

Other Events

As head of state and as advisor to our forum-side government, I would strongly advocate for the continuation (restarting?) of some traditions, including the State of the Coalition address (think of this more like the King’s Speech to Parliament if you’re from the UK!) I would love to hear more from the forum-side government, as well as from other TSPers, on how the role of the delegacy can be utilized better as well!

Ice Cream?

Yes.

Conflict of Interest Declaration:

My only nations on NS right now are Differences-In-Differences (WA-locked) and Olvern, both currently only resident in The South Pacific.

Current IC Roles:
Citizen and Legislator of the Coalition of the South Pacific
Ambassador of the South Pacific to 10000 Islands
Staffer, Ministry of Culture
Director of the Office of World Assembly Legislation
Member, Domestic Affairs Council and Foreign Affairs Council
Member, Coral Guard
Member, Citizenship Committee

Former IC Roles:

  • TSP: OWL Director, Prime Minister, Chair and Deputy Chair of the Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Election Commissioner.

  • TNP: Citizen (and RA member when that existed) from 2013-2015 and 2024-2025. Deputy Speaker, Minister of Culture, Security Council member, Speaker, all circa 2014-2015

  • Briefly held citizenships in Europeia (2 years ago?) and XKI (eons ago, probably). I do not hold any citizenships besides TSP at this very moment.

OOC Roles: I am currently a Moderator in the TSP Moderation Team.

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Sorry I prefer Cake

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Nwahs, what action will you take as Delegate to clean up the RMB?

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Thanks for the question Langburn! Honestly, if this is about what happened a few days back that led to some moderation actions, I do agree that it was an unfortunate incident, but I cannot comment beyond what has already been commented on by other members of the moderation team.

I do believe that an approach that is centered around reminding people that our RMB is meant to be a safe environment for all (especially since there are many teenagers and even some younger persons in our gameside community) is the key way forward. It will have to be a collective effort both from myself, other RMB moderators, and from other RMB regulars to make sure that we reach and maintain that standard, and hopefully that sets a good expectation for newer RMBers in due course.

As many of our RMBers tend to lean towards being younger, I fully understand the tendency to be more lenient about some minor transgressions and letting them off with a suppression and warning, but when there are clear violations of the community guidelines, I will be more than happy to eject and ban if necessary to ensure the RMB remains a place that everyone is comfortable to post and read.

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Thank you for sharing your campaign. My question relates to the role of the Delegate as a ceremonial head of state.

How will you handle interaction with the Prime Minister and their government? Generally and at times/on issues where you disagree with the Prime Minister’s direction?

How will you involve yourself in foreign affairs and WA policy (if at all)?

Will any part of how you interact with the Assembly or elections change?

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Thank you for your question HS! I agree with you that as a ceremonial head of state, the Delegate should strive to remain above partisan politics, especially so in our system of government as designed in the Charter following the 2016 Coup.

The Charter states that the Delegate serves as an advisor to the forum-side government. Insofar as I have views on particular matters, I will channel them to the Prime Minister and their government, and if the Prime Minister and their government sees fit to consult me on any matter (e.g. integration, culture), especially relating to regional growth and activity, I will be more than happy to advise and contribute where necessary/feasible.

If there are disagreements, I will defer to the Prime Minister after registering my disagreement in private in my advisory role, and I will make no note of any agreement or disagreement in public spaces. The Charter is very clear on the matter that the Prime Minister is in charge of our government, and I fully intend on respecting this if elected.

Only insofar as the Prime Minister and the relevant cabinet ministers sees fit to allow me to, and always only in an advisory role rather than an executive one. I may continue pursuing WA legislation at my own time during a term while I am delegate, but I will campaign on these things only as a private individual, rather than in my capacity as delegate. Besides executing OWL vote recommendations, none of my WA activity (if any) should be construed as a position of TSP’s government.

While I maintain my rights as a Legislator and Citizen, I understand that my views will have undue weight on our electoral and legislative processes given the significance of the role I take on if elected. Owing to this, I will strive to keep my discussions publicly on draft legislation to be as constructive and non-partisan as I possibly can. On public votes relating to appointments and retention in political positions conducted in the Assembly, I will return to abstaining on them, like I did when I was Chair. I will not weigh in publicly on the merits of any candidate taking part in a Prime Minister election either, since I could end up working with any of the candidates for Prime Minister.

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Thoughts on clouds?

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I’ll practice dessert tolerance as Delegate, but as the region’s premier ice cream extremist I cannot practice total dessert acceptance. It would not be true to my deeply-held beliefs.

Are clouds edible? I sure would like to eat one, especially the ones that shoot lightning bolts.

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You can eat pretty much anything if you put your mind to it. Even lightning is fair game.

Anyway, you have my full support. :smile:

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Ugh another tyrannical non-cakeist. All the cakeists, hide for 2 months before this tyrant persecutes us!

Will you be able to manage your time as Delegate effectively considering you have so many IC responsibilities?

I like this campaign. I’ll support an ice creamist this time.

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I am pro-cakeist and as pro-cakeist we need equal rights

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How many legendaries I’m getting if you become the delegate?

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In your government, will you support LARY?

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Thanks for your question jay! I do have a lot of IC responsibilities, but a lot of them would be subsumed under my role as an advisor to the forum-side government if elected Delegate. Also, being the Delegate means I naturally do even more endotarting than usual (which is already the key job of a CGer!)

I can imagine that I will probably have to give up on being OWL Director, which is already more of a position that I’m safekeeping at this point. As for CitComm, the job there is more routine than anything and I suspect my work there won’t affect my ability to execute the role of Delegate.

The jury is out on whether you’d stay alive afterwards!

I said I tolerate all desserts! I said nothing of persecution! I just frickin love ice cream!

Equal dessert rights is cool and all but have you tried ice cream

I don’t card farm myself, but I’m sure regardless of whether I win or not, you’ll be able to complete that legendary collection!

I… still don’t know what LARY is, and at this point I’m too afraid to ask…

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Give me 3 good reasons why to vote for you

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How often do you engage with the regional message board? Will you increase this if elected? If so, how?

I am not asking from the perspective of moderation – that is for the team to sort out there. Rather, the South Pacific has repeatedly kneecapped its own ability to develop its identity and cohersiveness as a region because it treats the forum and gameside communities as separate entities (and this habit was much more egregious when the Local Council existed). Many politicians here barely, if at all engage with the regional message board, contributing to that disconnect.

Put more bluntly: for two years this region had an active Delegate who developed a near-cult following on the RMB. Then we implemented term limits. Then, the successor Delegate had an agonizingly long transition, near-zero gameside presence, and did not run for re-election, only serving two-thirds of the term in the seat.

The region needs a Delegate who will engage well on-site, as in with the message board itself, not just endo-tarting. We do not play Discord, we play NationStates, and the Delegacy needs to start reflecting the South as one cohersive unit rather than a bizarre federal system of two halves.

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YES!

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During your administration, will we be able to receive SPIT saplings as gifts?

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Thanks for the questions and for your insight on the state of the “forumside”/“gameside” disconnect in our region, Quebec.

Prior to announcing my run, I think my posting on the RMB has been fairly mixed (but pretty much also correlated with the amount of time I spent on the forums and discord as well for IRL reasons), but as part of my role as OWL Director I do interact with the RMB a fair bit. It certainly did not reach anywhere remotely close to what Erstavik accomplished, but I did not shy away from the RMB and I would not say that I am a stranger to the RMB by any means.

Certainly, I expect my activity on the RMB to increase significantly if elected delegate. I cannot promise specific details on things that I would do, but I plan on actively spending more of my time on NS getting to know the community that spends more time on the RMB better, and finding new and interesting ways to interact with the RMB (e.g. daily/twice-daily questions, creating mini-puzzle/trivia dispatches — ok, maybe these activities reflect more of my own personality than anything but hey).

Honestly, after having spent about 2 years in the region, I think this is a fair assessment. It was already apparent to me that there was a big gameside/forumside divide in our region when I first joined (moreso than I thought there was when I was in TNP circa 10 years ago), and while I have in the past talked a big game about integration efforts and such stuff, I don’t think I have really tried that hard personally in my political career here to actually work towards a resolution of this issue.

I think at the very least, we should expect our active politicians to not just cater to the direct electorate that exists forum/Discord-side, and I have to admit that I have fallen short on that regard at times as well while I held various offices in the Coalition. I don’t think there are any easy solutions to this problem, but…

I think the problem is that even if you have an active gameside Delegate like Griff was, you’re not actually resolving the fundamental roots of the problem either, as your example clearly illustrated. We run the risk of creating different power bases that split our forum and gameside communities, and it feeds into the perception that some gamesiders have that our region is just being run by a shady “establishment” that refuses to engage properly with the gameside, a theme that our now-former delegate unfortunately kept playing on, seriously or otherwise. It has to be a whole-of-region effort to actively bridge the gap between these communities, and the buck can’t stop only with the Delegacy. As Delegate, I will endeavor to work with any government of the day to bring our community closer.

I agree wholeheartedly. I admit that like any politician, all I can do is promise, but I promise that you will see an active Delegate for all of TSP from day one.

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What is your commitment to resetting the Count to 20: delegate version thread and updating the NS dial?

Also, why should I vote you instead of a Pieist candidate, now that we have one?

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